As the world geared up to celebrate the achievements of the disabled, the students of St Louis Institute for the Blind and Deaf, Adyar had another reason to rejoice. Earning accolades for the school, V Lokesh, a hearing-impaired student, received the Best Creative Child with Disabilities Award in function attended by the President of India in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on World Disability Day. The Class 9 student’s achievement was a first in St Louis’s 50-year history. He is the first student from the school to win a national honour — for the empowerment of the disabled — in the arts arena.
Meet his arts teacher Amudha Murali, who designed his road to success. The unassuming mentor, who was born with a hearing impairment, taught him to hold his paint brush and unleash his creativity using water colours. Over the past five years she groomed him to love art for art’s sake.
“I am completely deaf and I can’t hear sounds so I watch lip movements,” she signals as the NSS officer and economics teacher of the school, T Savariraj translates.
Amudha feels the joy of teaching has helped her overcome the many barriers in her life. She found her passion for arts during her schooling in Little Flower School for the Deaf, Teynampet. While she enjoyed a ‘protected life’ in Little Flower during her primary classes, she had to complete her higher secondary education in a mainstream school, where she struggled to understand lessons, unable to lipread with all the teachers. But her hard work and will to excel witnessed her pass her exams with a first division. After completing her BA in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, she moved on to a textile designing course at the Kothari Academy.
Sharing her excitement about Lokesh’s achievement, she gives an insight into his world. “When Lokesh joined he was in Class 4. He was deeply interested in drawing and painting. So I encouraged him to participate in competitions,” she signals.
The bubbly 51-year-old teacher not only encouraged him to participate in more than 100 competitions, but also treasures newspaper clippings of Lokesh’s achievements in her very own scrap book. When she showcases his best work, a realistic water colour painting of the Royal Bengal Tiger, the gleam in her eyes says it all.
He cut out the photo of the tiger from a newspaper and painted it. He loves tigers,” she explains.
Lokesh’s love for contests comes from his fondness for filing all his prize certificates. Cash prizes seldom excite him, says Amudha.
She gesticulates to the notice board that houses a host of Lokesh’s creations. Before you know it, Amudha opens up a file comprising the young achievers prizes from the 54th International Week of Deaf celebrations conducted by the Deaf Enabled Foundation in October with a host of inter-school competitions. Every achievement of his has a place in her folder. When you ask her about her 21-year-long teaching career, she says, “I love this job. They show me a lot of love and affection.”
Amudha Murali inspires students to express the beauty of nature through art. She trains the hearing impaired and visually challenged students. She organises a yearly inter school drawing competition at St Louis Institute that has participation from more than 70 schools.